Thank you, Jaime, and all the other well-wishers. Great feeling. I was 12 when they last won it (with a very different kind of team) and all the recent near-misses makes this one feel all the more special. Couldn't be happier for these players. They deserve it.

What is a better feeling, winning a cup with Germany or the CL with Bayern?

So few people are in this position to answer this question.

Pierre Littbarski wrote:Congrats to Krauts - not a particularly great side but when do you ever get a great side in international tournaments?

They are a more fashionable Italy 2006 but they are the best team in the tournament .

Genuinely believed they had 1st round exit potential, like Holland, due to tough group and schedule.

Portugal, Ghana, USA, France, Brazil, Argies is very impressive.

Brilliant assist from Schurrle, brilliant finish from Gotze and brilliant performance from Schweini and Boateng.

Holland would have done you though !

Yeah that thought came to my mind as well, already after the Brazil-Holland game, but I doubt it. Holland had one shot on goal against Argentina. Germany 5. And Argentina had 0 shots on goal last night. Holland would be dangerous on the break though. We will never know though. In the end if you beat Argentina, Brazil, Portugal and France with 13-1(which is better then Hollands 10-1 against Argentina, Brazil, Spain and Chile) they deserve to win this years WC. I do think Spains possession game is still ahead of that of Germany, but Holland took care of that...same old..same old..

Also I think this squad has a lot more depth then Italy in 2006, sure Ozil did a copy of Totti, but they have a lot of potential. After the pretenders(Podolski, Ballack, Frings, Lehmann etc) Germany has some genuine good players in Kroos, Schurrle, Gotze, Ozil, Hummels, Reus Neuer, add the contenders like Schweini and Lahm to it and you have a good team.

Argentina have had 9 shots on goal for the entire knock-out stages. I dont understand that coach. How can you field such a system without any pace, even Dimaria didnt help.

As for the final, thought for a final it wasnt bad, almost a copy of 2010. Though if you watch the highlights of it, bar that corner from Germany, Argentina had the better chances. Messi was better then in previous games, sure he didnt score, but in the games he did score, he was shite imo. Best player is a joke though. But in the end the better footballing side won, which should be a victory in its own. And I believe Germany would have gone progressive again if they didnt win again.

Messi winning the golden ball is one of the most ridiculous things FIFA has pulled off. Ever.

It's ok to give Argentina a consolation price, they had a very good tournament. But Messi was more or less anonymous when it counted most, didn't score a single goal in the knock-out stages. A real travesty. Mascherano would have deserved it a lot more.

I will always admire his talent, but Messi will never be fit to lace Maradona's boots. Not only was Diego the better player, he was a huge character, too, with all his faults. Seeing Messi with that robotic stare of his, not looking particularly fussed after losing a World Cup final (!) while being pretty anonymous for most of it, and comparing it to Maradona's tears in Rome in 1990...No wonder he'll never be really loved in Argentina. I also don't like the way he expects the team to run for him (his stats are truly horrendous, only Fred ran less in this tournament!), this didn't use to be the case in the Guardiola years at Barcelona. He is a changed player and if he doesn't get a grip soon and understands what is really important in this sport, he may have a very underwhelming finish of his career pretty soon, similar to many other South American players who faded pretty quick. He's 27 now, but has played professional football for a long time.

Axeslammer wrote:Can't believe no one mentioned the goalkeeping of Romero yet, he commited to the wrong corner

I don't think a decent goalie would have made that error...

No, it wasn't. It would have been an error if he hadn't closed down "his" corner, the corner Götze was at when he took the shot. It was simply a brilliant finish Romero couldn't be blamed for. The blame should be taken by the Argentinians who tried to stop Schürrle, who still managed to put in that peach of a cross with his weaker left foot.

blutgraetsche wrote:Messi winning the golden ball is one of the most ridiculous things FIFA has pulled off. Ever.

It's ok to give Argentina a consolation price, they had a very good tournament. But Messi was more or less anonymous when it counted most, didn't score a single goal in the knock-out stages. A real travesty. Mascherano would have deserved it a lot more.

I will always admire his talent, but Messi will never be fit to lace Maradona's boots. Not only was Diego the better player, he was a huge character, too, with all his faults. Seeing Messi with that robotic stare of his, not looking particularly fussed after losing a World Cup final (!) while being pretty anonymous for most of it, and comparing it to Maradona's tears in Rome in 1990...No wonder he'll never be really loved in Argentina. I also don't like the way he expects the team to run for him (his stats are truly horrendous, only Fred ran less in this tournament!), this didn't use to be the case in the Guardiola years at Barcelona. He is a changed player and if he doesn't get a grip soon and understands what is really important in this sport, he may have a very underwhelming finish of his career pretty soon, similar to many other South American players who faded pretty quick. He's 27 now, but has played professional football for a long time.

I don't mind who won this award to be honest, I came to terms with it the last world cup after iniesta won it for scoring a goal in the final, after being anonymous for the first half at least, and not really being outstanding during the rest of the world cup. I think it should be robben, but if they need to give it to a guy who played in the final then neuer, but for some reason they give keepers a separate award now. Messi was better than Mueller, who I am a big fan of, in the final itself, so fair enough. Not messi's fault his mates are shite.

For all of mascherano's effort, he should have been sent off in the final (I counted at least 3 yellow card offences after his first yellow), it was the goals of messi that got them the wins early on (I think he had 4 motm performances, scoring goals in the 90th minute etc). It was not messi on top form, or even anywhere near as fit as he could be, and it was messi that was heavily marked, and yet he still produced. Schweinsteiger did all of what mascherano did in the final, with much less fouling and plenty of good passing thrown in. Mascherano is a good yet very limited player who I would never want to see winning this kind of award.

Messi failed to show up in most of the knock-out stages, he really wasn't better than Mascherano yesterday, that's just wrong. I didn't want to say that Mascherano was the tournament's best player, he clearly wasn't, but if the price is given as a consolation, which it apparently is, he would have been the more deserving Argentina player. The tournament really starts in the knock-out stages, that's where the truly great players show up.

Plus, it's easier to look good when you have the team built around you, when you are allowed to stay up for most of the match, conserving energy while running as much as Fred did, letting the rest of the team work their arse off for you. That's jst pure anachronism, and it's egoistic, especially if he doesn't pull off Maradona-esque performances in the knock-out stages where it counts to justify it.

Diego Maradona has criticised Fifa for awarding Argentina’s Lionel Messi the Golden Ball award for the World Cup’s best player.

Messi was presented with the award after his country’s 1-0 defeat to Germany in the final in Rio, beating such stellar performers as Arjen Robben, James Rodríguez and Thomas Müller. Despite scoring four goals in seven matches, the Barcelona star was not at his best during the knockout stages and Maradona dismissed the decision as a “marketing plan”.

“Messi? I would give him heaven if possible,” the 1986 World Cup winner said on his television show on Telesur. “But it’s not right when someone wins something that he shouldn’t have won just because of some marketing plan.”

blutgraetsche wrote:Messi winning the golden ball is one of the most ridiculous things FIFA has pulled off. Ever.

It's ok to give Argentina a consolation price, they had a very good tournament. But Messi was more or less anonymous when it counted most, didn't score a single goal in the knock-out stages. A real travesty. Mascherano would have deserved it a lot more.

I will always admire his talent, but Messi will never be fit to lace Maradona's boots. Not only was Diego the better player, he was a huge character, too, with all his faults. Seeing Messi with that robotic stare of his, not looking particularly fussed after losing a World Cup final (!) while being pretty anonymous for most of it, and comparing it to Maradona's tears in Rome in 1990...No wonder he'll never be really loved in Argentina. I also don't like the way he expects the team to run for him (his stats are truly horrendous, only Fred ran less in this tournament!), this didn't use to be the case in the Guardiola years at Barcelona. He is a changed player and if he doesn't get a grip soon and understands what is really important in this sport, he may have a very underwhelming finish of his career pretty soon, similar to many other South American players who faded pretty quick. He's 27 now, but has played professional football for a long time.

he wouldn't have been my choice but it's not that ridiculous. even if he didn't score in the KO games, he played a crucial part in their goals in both 2R & QF.

any of Neuer, Hummels, Schweinsteiger, Muller would've been good choices but in a way the fact that Germany were so impressive throughout the team works against them for this award 'cause different players stood out at different times rather than the same individual all through - could probably pick a different MOTM for each game (Schweinsteiger for the final, Khedira SF, Hummels QF, Neuer 2R, Muller vs Portugal, can't remember the other two games well enough!)

other possibilities:Robben was similar to Messi - didn't have the same impact in the QF/SF as he had early on so would've been equally questionable choice James Rodriguez would've been worthy but going out in QF doesn't help your chances + he got the golden boot. Mascherano - definitely a big player for them in the latter stages of tournament, but a DM is always likely to be overlooked when it comes to a big individual prize